Nabaztag was an internet connected plastic rabbit that failed to solve a consumer need because it wasn’t connected to other devices.
Photograph: Creative Commons

“The internet of things” was first coined by a British visionary called Kevin Ashton. Back in 1999, before the dotcom bubble started to burst, he first used it to describe how internet-connected devices would change our lives.

Ashton forecast a futuristic world of seamlessly connected devices that would save us both time and money. Fast forward 15 years and the idea has become mainstream. Households across Britain are comfortable with brands like Nest and Hive connecting their heating systems to the internet. But the road to mass adoption has not been smooth and there remains an ongoing battle over common standards that would allow devices to “talk” to each other.

In many of the early IoT products, consumer needs were overlooked in favour of headline-grabbing gimmicks. Nabaztag, the internet-connected plastic rabbit, was a fine example of this. Launching around the same time Ashton coined the internet of things terminology, Nabaztag’s long list of features included movable ears, a tummy complete with flashing lights and even a contactless chip reader. A loyal developer community sprung up around this curious internet-connected critter.

But Nabaztag failed to solve any consumer need. Worse still, it struggled to connect any other smart devices or systems in people’s homes. Its flashing lights could tell you when you had emails waiting, but so could your Blackberry. It could tell you when rain was coming, but so could a smartphone. This growing list of shortcomings made Nabaztag’s £125-plus retail price difficult to justify. The internet’s first connected rabbit was doomed from the start and sent its parent company, Violet, hopping into administration.

Lessons were learned. “The internet of things is a new area of technology, but the same fundamentals apply,” explains Mark Lee, commercial director at Intamac Systems, an IoT business based in Northamptonshire. “If you create products that are useful and that change lives, however big or small, people will buy them.”

Intamac’s products and innovations connect existing technologies to the internet. Early examples include making home security systems smarter by sending SMS alerts to homeowners when their properties were under threat. “At the time, many people wouldn’t recognise this as an early IoT technology,” says Lee.

In one recent project internet-connected temperature sensors were installed in elderly people’s homes. These alert care workers when there is a problem and prevent the elderly from falling victim to cold temperatures in the winter. It is hoped this could lead to lives being saved and reduced care costs. “Creating people-based services that monitor and improve lives is just the tip of the iceberg”, says Lee.

Crowdfunding revolution

Consumer interest has exploded in recent years. In 2014, wearable devices accounted for 65% of the $9.2bn market value for IoT. The Mars report predicts that by 2018 this will grow to 73% of a $30.2bn market.

At the smaller but rapidly growing startup end of the market, many struggle to raise funds to start their first production run. With venture capitalists still wary of backing what is still viewed as a risky investment, many have turned to crowdfunding to get their ideas off the ground.

Indiegogo has become one of the market leaders for hardware startups. In the past six months alone it boasted six IoT campaigns, raising more than $2m million each. What started as a way for early-stage businesses to access funds for production has grown into a right of passage for many hardware startups.

“Startups and large companies are making products that people actually want rather than products they think the market wants. Aside from the valuable insight into product-market fit, running a campaign also enables you to capture data against your customers, figure out new customer segments and even entire markets,” says Anastasia Emmanuel, director of UK technology and design at Indiegogo.

Without standardisation, the sector could stall

From Phillips’ Hue connected lighting to Belkin’s slow cooker and even an internet-connected cat feeder, you can expect to see more and more connected technology in your home in the near future. But there is an elephant in the room. Like many booming areas of technology before it, the internet of things revolution is plagued by a lack of industry standards.

If, like many early adopters, you have packed your home with the latest in smart technology, you will find few of your devices can talk to each other. Want to turn your lights on and off? You will need Phillips’ own proprietary app. Heating on too low? Better open your Nest app.

Critics point out many of positive benefits of a smart home are outweighed by the inconvenience of having to open separate apps for every device. Major players in the space have built and protected their own ecosystem rather than sign up to industry-wide standards for the benefit of consumers and the industry. Some predict a repeat of the VHS vs Betamax and HD-DVD vs Blu-ray standards wars that harmed both consumers and manufacturers.

The battle for supremacy has started. Late last year, Apple announced HomeKit, a centralised control system tied to the iPhone ecosystem. Critics point out that Apple’s system will likely not interact with Google’s competing Nest ecosystem. Samsung have also joined in the race, creating further chaos for consumers.

But unlike the standards battles of the past, the internet of things revolution may not need an all-out winner. Intamac’s Mark Lee thinks the trend is instead on interoperability between different systems. “Services like Spotify Connect, which in turn can control Sonos wireless speakers as well as other Bluetooth and Apple Airplay speakers in your home offer a better solution for consumers and businesses alike.” Collaborations like these are currently the exception rather than the rule.

IFTTT (if this then that), an independent internet-based platform was created to champion the idea of bridging the gap between connected devices and internet services. Users can create what it calls recipes. Each recipe contacts an ‘if’, which acts as a trigger and then activates a ‘do’ action. For example, in a matter of clicks you can set your Nest home thermostat to change your Hue light bulbs to red in the event of your boiler malfunctioning without the need to use multiple apps on your smartphone. Without this virtual bridge, these two devices would not be able to communicate with each other. Thousands of pre-made recipes have been created by a growing developer community.

There is no doubt the internet of things will continue to become an important part of our digital lives. But without the major players working together, consumers may lose interest and this revolution could stop in its infancy. If common standards are achieved, Kevin Ashton’s futuristic vision of our connected world could soon become a reality.